


The Halfling

by Apollena



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, My First Fanfic, Slow Romance, Why Did I Write This?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2019-01-07 04:17:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12225588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Apollena/pseuds/Apollena
Summary: Years after her father's death, Adora finds his undelivered letter to his brother whom he had a falling out with. Determined to deliver her father's last words, she sets out on a potentially dangerous quest to a town half a world's away. Along the way, she runs into an odd company of thirteen dwarves, a wizard and a hobbit with a dangerous quest of their own.





	The Halfling

Everyone in Bree would agree that the Starkwalker’s where an odd family indeed. Hobbits and Men were not hostile towards each other, some were even friends, but they generally did not mix and they certainly did not marry.

Corrinne Underhill herself was a proper hobbit, gentle and genial, a very well behaved hobbit and very pretty too, she was. In the heart of Bree, she had bought a small shoppe and opened a bakery, a very lovely and popular one at that. The story goes that on a particularly stormy night, lightning crackling in the sky and the rain drops big as cats, Bran Starkwalker, a weary traveler came into her shoppe and passed out. Dropped like a bag of rocks he did, right in front of her counter. Corrinne, ever the kind soul she was, nursed him back to health and in exchange for her hospitality, he began working at her shoppe.

Bran was not a man of many words or smiles, but he got on quite well with everyone and it didn’t escape anyone’s notice how he and Corinne seemed to fit like two pea’s and a pod. Despite such observations, it came as a shock when one day, the shoppe closed for nearly two weeks and when it finally opened again, there was Corrinne and Bran, wedded. They were the talk of the town for sometime and for years to come,

Within a year, their union produced an uncommon, if not lovely child, Adora. She was a normal healthy little girl, genial of disposition, prone to fits of fancy, with a penchant for running through mud and tracking it through the living room and stealing cookies when her mother wasn’t looking.

She was short in stature though taller than her mother, standing at a modest height of exactly four foot five, and she did not have the hairy and tough feet of a proper hobbit and her ears were quite smooth and rounded. Her hair was as black as raven feathers, like her fathers and beneath dark and defined brows were warm amber eyes that seemed to glow with an inner light. 

Everyone agreed they were odd indeed, but they also agreed that they were happy. Their bakery held the warmth of home and the easy laughter of love. And there always, the customers could not miss the merry giggles of Adora, whom everyone most definitely agreed was the cutest little thing they’d ever seen. It was like this for a time, warm and bright, but all seasons must end. 

Bran Starkwalker passed away one sunny cold day in the middle of winter. He’d fallen ill weeks before and as each day passed, he only grew worse. His skin became sallow and a nasty cough took his breath away. It was Adora’s fifteenth year when she and her mother took a shovel to a hard ground and laid him to rest.

Adora’s mother followed soon after on a clear spring day, the birds chirping merrily outside the tree’s of her windows and a gentle warm breeze blowing the curtains in. Everyone said it was from a broken heart and Adora acquiesced. She did not mourn her mother’s passing nor shed any tear for she knew her mother was with her father now. She buried her mother next to her father, on a plot atop a hill under an oak tree overlooking the town of Bree.

||||

Nearly two summers passed after her mother’s death before she could bring herself to enter her parents room, A malodorous air spilled out, thick layers of dust had gathered over every surface, spiders had made homes in the corners and everything was just as they were when Adora had closed the doors two years ago.

Opening a window, Adora breathed a sigh of relief as fresh air flooded in and dispersed the thick smell of age. She rolled up her sleeves and started dusting and wiping every surface, her mother would not have approved of such filthy conditions. After over two hours, she stood back and smiled, tears flowed down her ruddy cheeks as memories of happier times came forth.

Adora was clearing out the closet, packing up her father’s clothes when she found the journal, written in her father’s hand. As she was flipping through the pages, an envelope fell out, one thick with a letter. Upon inspection Adora noticed that it was unopened and written in her father’s hand and on the front was the name Bard. She’d never heard the name before and she wondered if it was perhaps a friend of her father’s. It saddened her to think that the letter was never delivered.

She set the letter aside and opened the journal, hoping that perhaps her father had written of him. The sun carved its daily path across the sky and Adora read on, crying and laughing as she read of her father’s life, a life which he admittedly never spoke of, never mentioning that he had a brother, Bard, a brother half a world away whom he’d had a fight with and never reconciled. Adora traced the lettering on the envelope and single tear rolled down her sweet cheeks. Her heart ached for her father, realizing that the letter were his last words to his brother and it never arrived.

The idea arrived hours later as she was sitting by the fireplace restringing her bow. It was a crazy idea, completely mad and absolutely worth it.

She would deliver the letter.

Yes, it was quite a daring thought for someone like her, yet she found herself digging through her father’s belonging looking for a map. In his journal’s, her father talked of a town called Esgaroth, his birthplace.

She would do it, for her father.

||||

“You’ve gone mad.” she chided herself in the mirror as she held up a strand of hair to the scissors in her other hand. It would not bode well for her to travel alone as a female, so that left only one choice, she needed to disguise herself as a boy.

Closing her eyes, she squeezed the scissor. “Wait! You’re about to cut your hair! Why are you closing your eyes?!” She’d clearly lost it, after all what sane person talked to herself? After much internal strife and plenty of questionable cuts, her long dark locks carpeted the bathroom floor. There was no turning back now.

She spent the next week packing and setting her affairs straight, especially concerning the bakery, and dodging questions from nearly the entire town. It seemed that wherever she went someone wanted to know her business. She was never one for anger and was usually tolerant of the townsfolk nosiness and odd fascination with her life, but she was ready to scream and pull out what remained of her hair by the end of the week.   

||||

Lux snorted impatiently, hooves pawing the ground as if to say _Anyday now would be nice._

“Alright, alright. Give me a moment would you?” she said, stroking his chocolate brown mane. Lux was a pony that her mother purchased several years ago for her thirteenth birthday. He came in handy whenever Adora had to do deliveries or carry flour from the grocer to the shoppe. He also had quite the personality.

Behind Adora, the town of Bree stood silently in the wee hours of dawn, the sun yet to grace the sky. Since her girlhood days, she’d stood at the gates gazing down the road that stretched on and away, dreaming of a day she would discover what lay beyond. Taking a deep breath she nudged her pony along. It was now or never.

She felt for the letter in her pocket, resolve in her journey emboldened as her fingers stroked the rough envelope. Setting the pony on a trot, she smiled and bravely embraced the road . An adventure this would surely be and her heart sang as it never had before. She felt light as a feather and imagined herself a bird soaring up and away into the forest.

Keeping a slow pace so as not to tire out Lux and so she could enjoy the simple beauty of nature around her, she would stop often  to admire and sketch flowers, plants, and the animals that did not scatter and skitter at her presence.

As a child, her parents often took her on picnic on the outskirts of town and there her love for the natural world flourished. It was not long after that she started growing flowers around the house in odd containers, like an old shoe, a broken cookie jar, cracked mug. It confounded her mother terribly and amused her father immensely. She simply hated to see them go to waste when they could still serve a purpose.    

She passed a few fellow travelers, but they all kept to themselves, hardly acknowledging her as they galloped on by, but she offered them a smile and a wave nevertheless.

||||

It was the fifth evening of her travels, the sun was nearly over the horizon,  the air was crisp and smelled of honeysuckle. After a long day of riding she found a small clearing to set up camp for the night. She was just about to heave her pack off Lux when she heard the crackling of leaves and the snap of a twig.

Too late, she turned and was face to face with a man, squat and burly, very dirty with a sword in hand, a sword that was aimed at her throat.

“Good evnin’ little boy.” he sneered, showing a row full of browned teeth.

“It was.” Adora replied, trying to keep her voice even and solid. She would not give him the satisfaction of seeing her afraid though she very much was.

“Cheeky thing he is.” Another voice piped in, slightly on the squeaky side. “Pretty too. I’ll wager he’ll fetch a good price, nice lookin thing like that.”

Three more men, equally as ugly and grubby as the first emerged from the forest, all of them laughing and sniggering. Adora saw her chance to attack while they were distracted. She ducked and aimed a solid kick in the groin to the one holding a sword to her, causing him to scream and let go of his sword in lieu of cupping his precious bits.

“Lux, attack!” Adora commanded her pony as she picked up the sword and used the handle to knock out it’s owner. Lux, for his part, charged towards the other three, scattering them. Unfortunately, Lux could only keep one of them busy, leaving the other two to circle her like wolves.

“Yer goin ta get it little boy! Just ye wait!” Adora cursed her luck. Her arrow’s were strapped to her back, but her bow was laying on the ground some distance away. The sword would have to do even though it was a bit too large and clunky for her, never mind that she had never really swung a sword before. The bow was her only skill in regards to weaponry and her interest in it had mainly been for fun. Never in her life had she thought she’d ever use it to harm anyone.

The two ruffians took turns pretending to attack, laughing at Adora’s every flinch and stumble until finally, when even a small movement of a hand made Adora jump, one of them attack. She raised the sword to block and nearly let go, the force from the hit nearly knocking her arms off. From the corners of her eyes, she saw the other man coming, his blade glinting in the last ray of light.

Her eyes clamped close and she waited for the pain, quite a lot of it actually, but it never came. When she opened her eyes, her assailants were on the ground, screaming rather painfully. One had a an arrow in his leg and the other in his shoulder. In an instant, they were on their feet, dragging their injured friends with them and scrambling away into the woods. This was certainly a curious turn of events.

||||

What an odd site it was, a company of thirteen dwarves, she counted, a wizard with a great tall hat, and a Hobbit who looked rightly ruffled and out of place.

“Hello there laddie.” one of the dwarves said, a grandfatherly looking one with a great white beard and a mop of hair to match. “Are you alright?”

“I suppose I am now.” Adora replied, getting to her feet. “I thank you all for that. I was in quite the dire straits.”

“Aye! What’s a little boy like ye doin out here anyway?” another dwarf asked, this one a rather tall one, balding but with a great beard shot through with a bit of grey.

Adora looked around uneasily at her strange saviors or who she hoped were her saviors and not just another group of hooligans. She determined it best to play along and be friendly.

“I’m on a journey” she said. “A quest if you will.” The forest rang with laughter. It would seem that the day was determined to make her a laughing stock. “I feel as if I’m missing something or perhaps you’ve an odd sense of humor! What exactly is so funny about my words?”

“A quest? To do what? Find your mommy?” someone asked. Adora sensed a playfulness in the words, but she felt rebuffed.  

“Laugh if you will, I don’t care.” she huffed, crossing her arms indignantly.

“What is this quest of yours?” a dwarf with long dark hair, peppered with grey asked, his countenance very gruff, but not unfriendly.

“I’m delivering a letter.” Adora replied, a wistful look upon her face.

“Oh! To a sweetheart?” this one asked by a dwarf with an odd floppy hat.

“No, nothing like that. If you must know I shall explain. The letter is from my late father to his brother. From my understanding they had some sort of falling out and never reconciled. Some weeks ago I found the letter amongst my father’s belongings and it has lead me to where I am now.”

“That’s noble, that.” the dwarf replied with a smile.

“And where does this uncle of yours reside?” the wizard asked, giving her a curious look under his hat.

“Quite far away actually, in a town called Esgaroth.” Oddly enough, her answer silenced all and she had the inkling that she had said something wrong.

“That is far laddie. Very dangerous.” the grandfatherly dwarf said. “Are you sure it’s worth it? The wild is no place for for one so young as yourself.”

“I am bound and determined master dwarf.” Adora replied resolutely, refusing to show any sort of hesitation.

A cool breeze blew by, ruffling the tree tops. The sun had all but disappeared now and the sky was now a deep hue of blue, sprinkled with twinkling stars.

“We camp here tonight.” announced a dark haired dwarf, rather authoritatively that Adora reckoned he was the leader. Then dismounting from his pony, he picked up her bow and walked it to her. “I am Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of this company.”

“Oh, thank you.” Adora said, accepting the bow. “I’m Adora Starkwalker.” She scolded herself mentally for not having the forethought to change her name ever slightly to one that sounded more masculine. She held out hope that her appearance would hold.

The rest of the company then went on naming themselves. There was Dwalin, Balin, Nori, Dori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Fili, and Kili. “At your service!” each one said. The wizard was Gandalf and the hobbit was Bilbo Baggins of the Shire. By the end, Adora’s head was spinning with names.

In the midst of the chaos, Lux came charging through, nearly knocking down the hobbit and likely giving him a heart stopping startle. He snorted and tried to head butt Thorin away from her garnering a rather annoyed look from the dwarf.

“It’s alright Lux. Everything's okay.” Adora laughed and adoringly stroked his head, giving him a small peck on the nose.

The dwarfs spread out in the clearing, setting up their camp and a rather rotund dwarf with red hair started making her small fire bigger.

“I think perhaps it would be wise if we were to camp with you.” The wizard said, throwing a wary eye at the darkened tree line. “Come along now.”

Adora soon found herself in the merry company of the dwarves, a bowl of warm stew in hand. Most of the dwarves kept away from her, occasionally throwing a weary look her way. The only one who actively engaged with her was Bofur, the one with the funny hat and the brothers, Fili and Kili who also appeared to be the two youngest in the group. Adora liked them instantly and found all three rather charming, silly, and full of spirits. Bofur seemed to have an endless supply of witty comments and the brothers added fuel to the flames.

As the night wore on and the fire dimmed to a slow dance, the dwarves began to settle for the night. Fili and Kili left to tend to the horses and soon Bofur was snoring beside her. Looking around, she found Thorin and the wizard muttering to themselves a distance away. She caught the wizard's eye and he motioned for her to come.

Her stomach felt slightly unsettled as she made her way to them. She knew the conversation was likely to do with her.

“Hello my dear girl.” Gandalf said, raising his pipe to his lips.

Adora felt cold suddenly, wincing upon having her disguise so easily broken. “Ho-how did you know?” she asked.

“No amount of shorn hair or trousers could hide what you are.” Thorin said, shaking his head, seemingly annoyed, though Adora couldn’t figure what he was annoyed at.

Adora sagged and sighed in defeat. “Alright, you’ve found me out. So, what now?”

“I’m certain nothing could convince you to abandon your quest, so I’ve convinced our dear Thorin here to allow you to travel with our company. The road is dangerous for a lone woman.”

She turned to Thorin then, slightly shocked and rendered rather speechless. It actually hadn’t occurred to her to travel with them in slightest seeing as how she didn’t even know there destination.

“Our destination is close to yours.” Thorin added, “But see to it, you do not become a burden. I’ll not have my company carry you.”

Adora tried not to take offense at his comment. “Thank you. I assure you I’m entirely independent.”

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is my first fan fiction ever...  
> I hope you enjoyed the first chapter and hopefully you'll come back for the next.  
> Critiques and comment are welcome.  
> Thank you!


End file.
